Assignments and Grading

The Effect of Grades After Grades Before Grades

The Grading Problem No Standards  You have to set the standards  You are responsible for your own grading

Assignments and Exams Should link to course objectives  Should allow you to see whether students are meeting goals Make a Course Calendar  Check exams and assignments against objectives Offer assignment variety Have writing assignments  Exam test questions  Two column – problem solution in column 1, explanation in column 2 Be Creative – maybe give a taste of professional life  May need to break large assignments into chunks Include precise instructions

Example of Creative Assignments Advertisement Briefing paper or “white paper” Budget with rationale Client report for an agency Court brief Diary of a fictional or real historical character Executive summary Instructional manual Letter to the editor Regulations, laws, rules Research proposal addressed to a granting agency Review of book, play, exhibit Taxonomy of set of categories

Make sure you give precise instructions

Late Work Penalties o Give them a taste of professional life No Penalties o Assignments should be learning experiences, not performances Year 1 – establish a policy and stick to it Year 2 – revisit your policy

Evaluating Assignments Save the pen o Announce common errors in class and not on each students paper o You may be able to simply give a number or letter on the paper Make a rubric o Establishes priorities – might even help your teaching o Tends to make grading consistent o Saves time o Share the rubric with the students o Let experience guide rubric revisions

Assigning Grades DON’T CURVE o Traditionally a curve is to establish the numbers of A’s, B’s, etc. by some standard, like the normal curve What is all students deserve an A? o Today many students mean “give me points I haven’t earned”

Letter Grades How many divisions are there? o Here we use A, B, C, D, F o Assign each division a point value (F = 0, D = 1, C= 2, B = 3, A = 4) Next assign weights to the assignments o Tests (Three)50% (15%, 15%, 20%) o Papers (Two)40% (20%, 20%) o Presentation10% Sarah gets the following grades o Tests: B, C, B o Papers: C, C o Presentations: B

Letter Grades (cont’d) Convert to numerical value o Tests: 3, 2, 3 o Papers: 2, 2 o Presentation: 3 Apply weights o Tests:.15*3;.15*2;.20*3 .45;.30;.60  Sum = 1.35 o Papers:.20*2;.20*2 .40;.40  Sum.80 o Presentation:.10*3 .30 o Net sum is 2.45 o Convert back into a letter grade (round down to C or round up to B)

Total Points Generate a scale (say we assign a total of 1000 pts) o A900 – 1000 o B800 – 890 o C700 – 790 o D600 – 690 o F< 600 Assign points/assignment o Tests: 150, 150, 200 o Papers: 200, 200 o Presentation: 100 Just add up total points and consult the conversion table. Having so many points allows for fine divisions

Norm’s System Lecture% of Lecture% of Course Exams (equally weighted) D2L Review Quizzes107.5 MA Homework107.5 Participation107.5 Lab% of Lab% of Course Exercises (11 labs + Obs.) Lab Final A 90 – 105B 80 – 89C 70 – 79D 60 – 69F < 60

Summary Test lTest 2 Final exam Paper 1Paper 2 Presen- tation Final grade Total value15% 20% 10% Letters/ Points earned Percentages(Raw) Grade earned BB +CAA-BB to B+ Total value Total Points: 1000 Amount earned =864 Grade earned BB+CAABB to B + Total value Total Points: 100 Amount earned =86.5 Grade earned B/B+ CAA-BB to B+

Notes Grading should support learning not justifying your grade Make grading transparent Comments on paper should be constructive Return work promptly